an eco-aware, flower power, neo-hippie, vegan blog

Lentil Buffalo Sauce

The Dirty Hippie eats a LOT of buffalo sauce. This is not an exaggeration. The buffalo sauce comes out of our fridge at least once a day. That said, I wanted to round up a healthier version of the condiment. After all, the store bought brands, even the vegan ones, contained a LOT of fat and preservatives.

Enter Veggie and the Beast. It’s a blog I stumbled on during my search. It belongs to a gal named Katie whose boyfriend also loves buffalo sauce. She developed this healthy recipe for him – and we love it, too! A double batch is made every other week and devoured in our home!

Katie’s recipe is really different because the main ingredient is red lentils. They have both fiber and protein, adding nutritional value to this beloved condiment. The recipe contains a lot of the usual ingredients for buffalo sauce, too, like chili powder, paprika and cayenne. We omit the oil when we make this. We’ve tried it both ways and it doesn’t really seem to change the recipe much, so why not save the calories?

Oh – the one ingredient that will change this recipe is the hot sauce. Choose a hot sauce you already enjoy, as it’s going to add a lot of the flavor – and heat! We’ve experimented with different brands and like the milder ones, like Tabasco, best for this. You may prefer something hotter. Oh – for my folks, we also made a batch that subbed in beer for the water, and they liked that a lot, too.